Oct

21

Receiving the Holy Eucharist often

October 21, 2007 |

My idea may not be very orthodox. I know that the Church has been advising daily Communion for a long time, now. I’m not comfortable with receiving the Sacrament daily, although, for these reasons:
- The sacrament is being trivialised. Man is made worthy of this gift and not vice versa. The Sacrament is worthy of all respect.
- The idea of the Eucharist as a ‘community meal’ I find a little abhorrent. The Mass is a sacrifice more than it is a ‘meal’.
- I find that the Lord’s holy day, Sunday, gains importance if reserved as the day for reception of the sacrament.

This is probably bad theology, but it’s how my mind is working now.

St. Francis de Sales on the idea of frequent communion: “Let others philosophize on the subject of receiving communion… And if you want to explain this to anyone you may very well say that you need to eat this divine meat so frequently because you are very weak and without this source of strength your spirit would soon grow weaker.” He did, however, say in chapter 21 of part 4 of the Introduction that one should “begin the evening before to prepare for Holy Communion with several aspirations and longings”.


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